“When COVID hit, we realized we had 45 days to start with a completely new company and to have a proctoring system up and running, and not just for a small pilot, but for the entire faculty.” – Steven Daniello, Director of Assessment Services, Indian River State College
Implementing remote proctoring on a tight schedule
Over its 60-year history, IRSC has continually evolved to meet the unique needs of the citizens and businesses in its four-county service district. What began as a one-building junior college has grown into a state college serving nearly 30,000 students annually on five campuses with five testing centers.
Before March 2020, about 30% of IRSC classes were online. However, like many educational institutions across the country, IRSC was forced to a fully online learning format due to COVID. This rapid transition was cause for concern for both students and faculty.
“We experienced the ups and downs of a roller coaster. Our proctoring solution at the time could not keep up with the demand,” explained Steven Daniello, Director of Assessment Services at IRSC.
Online proctoring services compared and implemented in just 45 days
While there were many remote proctoring functionality features needed across the college, the group prioritized five rubric items:
1. Secure proctored testing software with advanced tools
“There’s no point in giving a test if your faculty don’t feel secure,” Daniello said. IRSC needed proctored testing that not only prevents and deters academic dishonesty but also protects student data and privacy. Daniello found that Honorlock provided advanced remote proctoring features that differentiated from other companies’ software, such as safeguarding online exam questions, blending automated proctoring and live proctoring, and allowing instructors to customize what students can use during their online exams such as scratch paper for math tests.
2. Direct LMS integration with single sign-on
“You want an integrated system; you don’t want faculty and students to have separate sign-on. That was important for us.” Daniello also added that setting up the LMS integration with Honorlock’s remote proctoring system was very smooth and took less than an hour. Now, IRSC faculty can easily set up remotely proctored exams and neither the instructor nor the student has to leave the LMS or be hassled with a separate logins and passwords.
3. Support for students and faculty
Education goes around the clock, and Daniello knew that IRSC needed an online proctoring service with 24/7/365 support for students and faculty.
If any students or faculty have any questions or issues, they can access support directly in the proctored testing software in real-time. In other words, IRSC’s students and faculty don’t have to click out of the LMS to connect with a real person in just a few minutes.
4. Proctoring cost structure
During the online proctoring evaluation process, Daniello explored the benefits of different pricing models.
For example, some online proctoring services charge the institution per hour, which leads to varied costs and can even force instructors to shorten the length of their exams, which can negatively impact student performance. Honorlock’s flat-rate fee per online exam removed variable cost concerns for the college and helped to estimate remote proctoring costs during the evaluation accurately.
5. Testing accommodations
All online proctoring services must be able to work for students with approved special testing accommodations.
At IRSC, the Assessment Services and Student Accessibility Services departments work closely together to ensure all students are accommodated during the testing process.
Hitting the ground running with online proctored exams
In just 45 days, Daniello and IRSC successfully evaluated various remote proctoring services and implemented Honorlock online exam proctoring across the entire college.
In fact, in Fall 2020 alone, IRSC administered over 24,000 proctored online exams with Honorlock.
While IRSC’s Honorlock remote proctoring implementation ran smoothly, Daniello emphasized the importance of on-going faculty training sessions facilitated by IRSC, “We do a 45-minute training session for faculty each semester.”
In addition to the training sessions, the IRSC Assessment Services Department created guides for faculty highlighting IRSC’s specific remote proctoring use case.
Evolving education and testing
“As a result of COVID, education and testing are at an inflection point. Being forced to make a change provided an opportunity to learn and create better testing and more access for students,” Daniello concluded.
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About Indian River State College
Indian River State College offers high-quality, affordable, and accessible education to the nearly 30,000 students through traditional and online delivery. IRSC offers more than 100 programs and is accredited to award Baccalaureate Degrees, Associate Degrees, and Career and Technical Certificates.
